1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed in general to communications systems and methods for operating same. In one aspect, the present invention relates to devices and methods for the collaborative management of digital media.
2. Description of the Related Art
The use of mobile devices, such as cellular phones, has become increasingly popular in recent years for voice communications. More recently, “smart phones” and other wirelessly-enabled mobile devices have been introduced that have extended digital media capabilities. These capabilities include storing and playing large volumes of audio content, capturing still photographs, and recording video images with accompanying audio soundtracks. Furthermore, such digital media content can easily be forwarded to others as a result of the inherent communications capabilities of these devices.
Another known aspect of such mobile devices is their use for collaboration. One example is merging images taken by multiple, spatially distributed mobile devices to produce a single large image. Another example is using multiple mobile devices to collaboratively edit a document. Yet another example is collaborative, on-line game playing between multiple players.
There are also known approaches for transmitting digital media data stored on a mobile device to a television or computer monitor for display. However, there is currently no known approach for collaboratively managing, editing and sequencing such media within a display. Furthermore, there is no known approach for combining such media into an aggregate compilation and then sharing it with contributors and others.